The Cinema Audio Society has made some interesting calls over the years. “True Grit” last season, in the face of blockbuster and eventual Oscar winner “Inception.” “No Country for Old Men” in 2007 rather than the skillfully layered “Transformers” (and, again, eventual Oscar winner “The Bourne Ultimatum”). “Road to Perdition” over musical heavyweight “Chicago” and feast for the ears “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.”
'Hugo' sounds great to Cinema Audio Society
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 6:13 pm · February 18th, 2012
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'Descendants' wins the USC Scripter Award
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 5:53 pm · February 18th, 2012
The 24th annual USC Libraries Scripter Awards were held this evening just south of downtown at the Doheny Library on the USC campus. For the first time in a while, I had to miss the show (which is always a classy affair and, as a former USC grad student, always a bit odd, ordering a vodka tonic at the counter where I used to check out books for thesis and term paper purposes).
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'Descendants,' 'Artist' and 'Rango' have an ACE up their sleeve
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 5:31 pm · February 18th, 2012
The 62nd annual ACE Eddie Awards, recognizing achievement in film editing, were held this evening, and the big surprise came in the drama category. Alexander Payne’s “The Descendants” beat out fellow Best Picture nominees “Hugo,” “Moneyball” and “Hugo,” as well as the slickly cut (by last year’s Oscar winners) “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” for the award.
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Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey perform at the Oscars in 1999
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 10:13 am · February 18th, 2012
Whitney Houston is being laid to rest today in her hometown of Newark, New Jersey. I’ve been watching people like Alicia Keyes and Kevin Costner (who delivered a knock-out remembrance) pay tribute to the late singer, who was discovered dead last weekend at the Beverly Hilton Hotel today, and I have to say, the more I’ve considered this situation all week, as of course the media has kept turning it over so it’s always there to be considered, the sadder I’ve become.
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Digging into the cinematography field
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 6:34 pm · February 17th, 2012
This has been bugging me. I’d say the two hardest categories to predict this year are, of all things, Best Costume Design and Best Documentary Feature. Guy worked through the former today, while I worked through the latter yesterday. But Best Cinematography is also something I keep circling back around to.
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'The Help' wins three at NAACP Image Awards
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 6:03 pm · February 17th, 2012
The 43rd annual NAACP Image Awards were held this evening, and “The Help” was the big winner, taking down three prizes for Best Picture, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress. “Jumping the Broom” also brought in two performances awards.
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84th Oscarcast beginning to take shape
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 10:31 am · February 17th, 2012
With the Oscar telecast just over a week away, details are slowly starting to emerge about what we could expect. And some of the signs point to a celebration dovetailing with one of the year’s unofficial themes at the multiplex: an homage to classic movies and moviemaking.
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Oscar Talk: Ep. 82 — BAFTA winners, live action and documentary shorts
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 7:57 am · February 17th, 2012
In this week’s podcast, Kris and Anne reflect on last weekend’s BAFTA Awards and analyze the live action and documentary short nominees, among others.
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Tech Support Interview: Emmanuel Lubezki on capturing the moment in 'The Tree of Life'
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 10:41 am · February 16th, 2012
The experience of working on a Terrence Malick film is drastically different than the goings-on of a typical film set. And a photographer’s work, much like an actor’s, is collaborative at the start, but ultimately an element to be manipulated to the director’s will. But while some on a crew or cast might chafe at having their ego squashed like that, cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki finds it liberating and educational.
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Oscar Guide 2011: Best Documentary Feature
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 8:08 am · February 16th, 2012
I have no idea what’s going to win the Best Documentary Feature category. Zero. Zilch. Nada. I might as well get that out of the way right at the top. And I’ve even seen each film twice. It’s a rare year that sees such solid arguments in favor of each and every nominee of the bunch. That’s not to say that, personally speaking, each nominee is award-worthy, but I could just see the Academy’s doc voters falling for any of them.
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'Undefeated' demands a recount on the shots
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 7:39 am · February 16th, 2012
Every year when I wrap up the annual shots column, there are inevitably a few images that linger into my mind and make me wish I had considered them a little more, or make me wish they hadn’t hidden from my memory until it was too late. But never has such a shot hit me so hard that I could legitimately say it might have been my top choice.
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Taking questions for 2/17 Oscar Talk
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 11:49 am · February 15th, 2012
Offer up your burning queries.
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The top 10 shots of 2011: part two
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 6:58 am · February 15th, 2012
As we inch closer to the Oscar ceremony that will signal the true end of the 2011 film year, we reflect on the best single images captured on film (or digital drive, if you will). Today we wrap things up in the second part of this annual piece, offering up the five best shots of the year.
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The top 10 shots of 2011: part one
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 8:58 am · February 14th, 2012
They’re heeeeeeerrrrreeeeee. That’s right, the images have been assembled, the conversations have been had and the top 10 shots of 2011 are ready for their close-up (or over the shoulder, or two-shot, or insert, etc.).
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Round-up: Goodbye, Whitney
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 7:07 am · February 13th, 2012
In today’s round-up, saying goodbye to Whitney Houston, Douglas Trumbull’s plan to save movies and the Academy’s annual Sci-Tech Awards.
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ASC awards Emmanuel Lubezki and 'The Tree of Life' best cinematography of 2011
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 8:57 pm · February 12th, 2012
The American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) held its annual awards ceremony this evening, honoring achievement in feature film photography.
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Jean Dujardin and Kristen Wiig cut a rug on 'Saturday Night Live'
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 12:33 pm · February 12th, 2012
Fresh off “The Artist”‘s BAFTA dominance earlier today, we might as well post last night’s “Saturday Night Live” riff on Michel Hazanavicius’s film. Hey, when you hit SNL, you’ve really made it.
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MCN's Gurus make their final calls
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 9:26 am · February 11th, 2012
The Gurus o’ Gold collective of Oscar dorks (yours truly included) at Movie City News have offered up final-ish predictions. I imagine David Poland will give us all an opportunity to change this or that, and certainly, my own picks aren’t final until the Friday or Saturday before the show, but for the most part, these are where the chips lie.
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